


Space Bridged

by XtaticPearl



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 02:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17235725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: Fifteen steps separated them when he heard it. They were alone, blissfully and blastedly in equal measures. Only two voices and three words in between them.





	Space Bridged

**Author's Note:**

> Just a vague little imagining of a Stevetony reunion in space during A4.

Fifteen steps separated them when he heard it. They were alone, blissfully and blastedly in equal measures. Only two voices and three words in between them.

Steve looked broken, the way only those weathered by landslides of defeat could. He had seen it in his reflection for years and he saw it in another face now. Steve had cracked ice in his eyes and melted sorrow down his cheeks. He had fallen. He had loved.

No war could be soft. It was sharp-edged and tearing skin it touched; just as hopeless love. They had lived through too many wars now, within themselves, beside each other. Against their own. No war left them unscarred and Tony bore marks from them just as Steve.

And yet. And still. And so.

He heard the words he knew were true because they couldn’t have fallen apart without resisting togetherness. They couldn’t have been abandoned without wanting to belong. They couldn’t have tried to ignore without _something_ to ignore.

Tony saw Steve as a man who had come across stars for him and it fit just as much as the man who had disappeared across seas to avoid him. Because of him.

Maybe this was them, two men in a timestorm that spun them around with every shifting situation. But this was them finding a chance when there should have been none. Risking hope when things had gone to dust.

Fourteen steps and Tony saw Steve’s hands tighten around the seat still warm from Tony’s desertion. He was vulnerable, open for a hit, standing ground in front of Tony. He was stubborn but this was softer. This was for him, for them, and Tony felt a line align between circling points.

Thirteen steps for a reclaimed shield. Twelve steps for a restored promise. Eleven steps in a one-way trip. Ten steps on an abandoned signal.

Nine was Steve’s and Tony burned. There was a middle ground where they were reaching, new discovery of old destiny. Eight and seven were both their choices, magnets of a righting machine. Six was the first Avenger’s question and five the last’s answer.

Four was warmth and bodies recognizing missed heat. Three met elbows and shoulders clasped. Two was a rusted laugh, unused and thought impossible.

One was an echo of the right words.

_Missed you too._

_Love you now._

_Let’s go home._


End file.
